Use this TabStart page to explore a curated selection of resources that present poetry about women who withhold their bodies and heart until they meet the right person at the right time. Poets use the verse below to delve into the topics of restraint and anticipation between women and men. Some of the authors whose work is represented here include Walt Whitman, Grace Fallow Norton, and Richard Foerster.

Poem About Holding Back From Him

"You Say There Is No Love" - a Poem about Holding Back
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Bartleby.com provides Grace Fallow Norton's "You Say There is No Love." The narrator, speaking with her love, remarks that "Oh, folly, there are interludes / Better than the play," referring to the sense that sometimes there is pleasure in denial and restraint.

"Artichoke" - a Poem about Holding Back from Pleasure
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The Academy of American Poets offers "Artichoke" by Richard Foerster in which the narrator depicts a couple eating an artichoke, writing "For all the bother, it's the peeling away / we savored, the slow striptease / toward a tender heart." The enjoyable process, itself, is as fun as the goal. Having to hold back can be "savored" just as much as pleasure.

Poems about Lusting after a Lover

Poems about Lust, Passion, and Sex from The Academy of American Poets
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There is perhaps no more fertile poetic territory than the issue of passion, sex, and lust between two people. The Academy of American Poets presents this fantastic essay that guides you through a variety of poetry that deals with these juicy topics. Some of the authors whose work is mentioned include Robert Haas, Arthur Rimbaud, C.P. Cavafy, and many more.

Poems about Desire from The Poetry Foundation
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The Poetry Foundation provides this section on poems about desire. There are a number of brilliant works here by the likes of Bruce Covey, Stephane Mallarme, William Carlos Williams, and Ezra Pound.